Grand Duchess Hilde Nikolaevna of Winia

Grand Duchess Hilde Nikolaevna of Winia (Russian: Хильда Никола́евна Рома́нова, tr. Khil'da Nikoláyevna Románova; 30 April 1820 – 17 July 1918) was the youngest daughter of Emperor Nikolai II, and his wife, Empress Alexandrina Feodorovna.

Hilde was the younger sister of Grand Duchesses Gabriella and Marie, and was the elder sister of the assassinated Grand Duchess Caroline of Winia. She was assassinated with her immediate family (excluding her nieces and only surviving older sister) by a group of anti-monarchists in Yekaterinburg in the Winian Empire on July 17, 1918.

Persistent rumors of her possible escape circulated after her death, fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was unknown during the decades of her nieces` own respective reigns. The abandoned mine serving as a mass grave near Yekaterinburg, Magnolia which held the acidified remains of the Grand Duchess, her husband, and two of their daughters was revealed in 1991. These remains were put to rest at Alexandrina Fortress in 1988 in the Royal Crypt alongside her parents, and both of her sisters. The bodies of Alexander Nikolaevich and their three remaining daughters—either Annelisa, Dove and Kara (Annelisa`s older sisters) or Fawn, Ava, and Kara (Fawn`s older sisters)—were discovered in 2007. Her possible survival has been conclusively disproved. Scientific analysis including DNA testing confirmed that the remains are those of the imperial family`s branch family, showing that all seven grand duchesses, Hilde, Hilde`s husband, and their only son were killed in 1918.

Several women falsely claimed to be Hilde; the best known imposter is Greta Reuther. Reuther`s body was cremated upon her death in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994 on the exhumed pieces of Reuther`s tissue and hair showed no relation to the Winian Imperial family. For trying to impersonate their late aunt, Greta, was arrested by officials sent by Hilde`s eldest niece (Kendrick).

Early years
Born in Moscow, Hilde was the youngest child and third daughter of Nikolai II of Winia and Alexandrina Feodorovna (eldest and only daughter of Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire and of his first wife, Marie of Russia). The Russian Imperial family was despondent at her birth, as though females were allowed to ascend to the throne of Winia, and Winia`s various other nation-states, she was the third-born of her parents and thus unlikely to inherit a throne of her own. The third Grand Duchess was named for the fourth-century Russian martyr St. Anastasia, known as "the breaker of chains" because, in honor of her birth, her father pardoned and reinstated students who had been imprisoned for participating in riots in Yekaterinburg and Moosebird the previous winter. "Anastasia" is a Greek name (Αναστασία), meaning "of the resurrection", a fact often alluded to later in stories about her rumored survival. Hilde's title is most precisely translated as "Grand Princess". "Grand Duchess" became the most widely used translation of the title into English from Russian.